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Back Whisper Cottage Save as PDF
Chapters (28)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Prologue
  5. CHAPTER 1
  6. CHAPTER 2
  7. CHAPTER 3
  8. CHAPTER 4
  9. CHAPTER 5
  10. CHAPTER 6
  11. CHAPTER 7
  12. CHAPTER 8
  13. CHAPTER 9
  14. CHAPTER 10
  15. CHAPTER 11
  16. CHAPTER 12
  17. CHAPTER 13
  18. CHAPTER 14
  19. CHAPTER 15
  20. CHAPTER 16
  21. CHAPTER 17
  22. CHAPTER 18
  23. CHAPTER 19
  24. CHAPTER 20
  25. Keep Reading …
  26. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  27. About the Author
  28. About the Publisher

‘Pretty much. There’ll still be an inquest, but it looks as though the verdict will be accidental death. There was a lot of alcohol in her system, and God knows how, but it sounds as though she must have slipped and hit her head. They’ve re-examined the pathologist’s report and reckon the black eyes were due to the basal fracture, apparently.’

My mind began to dart. Somehow this put a whole different complexion on everything. ‘I don’t know what to say. I suppose it should be a relief in a way, but I still hate him for the way he treated her.’

There was a long pause from the other end of the line. Luc’s voice was quiet and resigned. ‘Nothing will bring her back, though, Stina. Whatever happened, it makes no difference now.’

I hung up with a heavy heart. I don’t know why, but somehow having someone to blame for Reggie’s death, someone who was going to be punished for their part in it, had helped to rationalise it in my mind. All I was left with was a sense of emptiness and a huge question mark over what had actually happened to my friend that fateful night. I buried my face in my hands and sobbed. It was like losing her all over again.

CHAPTER 12

The weeks rolled by. The realisation that I would never see Reggie again had begun to sink in. I felt guilty initially that here was I, getting on with my own existence and looking forward to the baby’s arrival, while my lovely friend’s life had been cut cruelly short, even if it hadn’t been at the hands of someone else. With time I was growing to accept it, although there were occasions that something would remind me of her: a song on the radio, a weepie film shown on TV that we had watched together with a box of hankies and a bottle of wine. I would wallow for a time and have a good cry. But gradually I was coming to terms with her loss, something I never thought that I would do at first. If we had been as close as we used to be, particularly when we were still living together, I would have felt it much more keenly. But I was about to move into a new phase of my life. I tried to keep busy and push any thoughts of Reggie to the back of my mind. I owed it to Jack and the baby not to allow myself to slide into depression. I had seen what it did to my mother and there was always the nagging fear that I had the propensity to finish up the same way.